Attention Meddling Christians

11Jul

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I know some of you get a kick out of controlling other people’s actions under the guise of your religion. And that you somehow feel this is legitimate because our founding fathers built this country on the foundation of Christianity. You also sometime’s use the line from our pledge of allegiance that states, “Under God.” Did you know that our founding fathers actually never intended for our government to be associated with any religion.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that in 1797 the United States drafted a treaty referred to as the Treaty of Tripoli with the nations of the Barbary Coast. In this treaty there was one clause of particular interest, regarding religion. “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…” I’m not sure that could be taken any other way.

Let’s take this a step further, that phrase you use from the pledge about “Under God,” that wasn’t there originally. The pledge of allegiance was composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892, it was formally accepted as the national pledge by Congress is in 1942. At the time of its adoption the “Under God” phrase did not exist, it was later added, in 1954. In the early 50’s numerous religious organizations began slipping “Under God” into their recital of the pledge, it was shortly thereafter that these organizations began recommending to the government that it be officially added. Like I said, meddling. The problem with this you see, is that not only did our founding fathers never intend for it to be that way, but once you begin requiring its recital you run into the issue that not everyone is a Christian and may not believe in the same God. I realize this doesn’t matter to you because you feel your religion is the only correct one. Proponents of the addition argue that Lincoln actually said it during his delivery of the Gettysburg address. What these proponents don’t realize is that, during that time, the phrase “Under God” simply meant “God willing” and would thus have considered its use in the pledge incorrect.

Here’s a fun fact, did you know that pre-WWII the proper salute for the pledge was the Bellamy salute, which may be familiar to most of us as the same salute the Nazis used during WWII. We changed it after WWII because of its association with the Nazis to the now standard, hand over heart method.

So maybe, before you try to use these arguments as reasons why the government should base its regulations on your religion, you should think about what you’re saying. Just because you don’t like the regulations that are or are not being made (such as abortion or gay marriage) doesn’t mean your say is the correct one, just a different one. No one has asked you to alter how you live your life, you still have the choice to live it according to laws your religion has set for you, but don’t try to force everyone else to follow those same rules because they may have an entirely different religion with entirely different rules to live by. Some of you speak out when you think our Constitution is being violated, which is great, above all things that needs to be protected and respected. But then some of you turn right around and do something that indicates you fail to recall the First Amendment which offer freedom of religion (which would include Atheism by the way, and sadly Scientology).

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